I've often described myself as a "reactive" thinker. I get my best ideas and arguments in response to others, not while daydreaming pondering Deep Thoughts. It's one of the reasons I find myself liking the detractors we get here at Wizbang, and value the comments section so much.

Recently, I've been describing my encounters with at least one Neo-Nazi here in New Hampshire. My last article provoked a mocking, derisory response from a Neo-Nazi blog. Unlike the American Nazi Party web site my neighbor had directed me to, this one accepted comments -- and I waded in.

First up, I had to disabuse the author of calling me a "twink." I informed him that while I am "gay-friendly," I am quite heterosexual. He backed off and said he meant he categorized me as one of those "skinny, malnourished" anti-racist protesters he says he's so used to dealing with.

"Skinny?" "Mal-nourished?" I WISH.

Anyway, while discussing the finer points of Nazism's history (I pointed out that their ideology had gone up against Communism in both "taking over the world" and "practicing genocide," and had been crushed by the Commies -- something they oughta be properly ashamed of), I presented my answer to the "were the Nazis right-wing or left-wing?"

My response has always been that the Nazis don't fit on the left-right continuum. The Nazis, as I see them, took the worst elements of both fringes and combined them into a melange of ideology that resulted in a nightmare that was the closest the world has ever seen to something absolutely Lovecraftian.

But then I took it a bit further. And I had an insight that I want to share.

Nazism is, at its very core, the very antithesis of America's ideals and history.

The Nazis are obsessed with "purity." They believe in a strict hierarchy of race, and they resist like hell any attempt to dilute their "pure" race, culture, or beliefs.

America, on the other hand, is the world's greatest "mulligan stew." We took in people who weren't wanted or welcome in their homelands. As the poem says:

We took in the tired, the poor, the huddled masses, the wretched refuse, the homeless of the world. And they brought with them the best of their old races and cultures and beliefs and genes and everything got tossed into the mix, and what emerged was the greatest nation that the world has ever seen.

We didn't do that by fighting to preserve our purity, to keep ourselves untainted and unsullied and locked in amber. We did that by trying everything, keeping what works, and trashing what didnt.

For example, Nazi Germany. It's become de rigeur to denounce them as The Ultimate Evil, and by extension everything associated with them as Irredeemably Evil. But that is too simplistic. The Nazi regime did a few things right. For example, the Autobahn was the precursor to our interstate highway system. The Volkswagen Beetle's legacy continues even to this day. The United States space program got a hefty leg up from Nazi research into rocketry.

The greatest has to be in the field of medicine. The Nazis conducted the most insanely inhuman tortures on their prisoners in the name of "science" -- and documented it thoroughly. It's astonishing how many lives have been saved by the knowledge they acquired in such depraved ways. The example that sticks most in my mind is in hypothermia -- the Nazis repeatedly immersed people in freezing water and recorded the results most meticulously. As a result, countless people who've ended up in freezing water in less deliberate circumstances have had their lives saved because of what we took from those monster's notebooks.

And in an especially delicious irony, the American nuclear program included quite a few ex-Germans who were the Nazi's "wretched refuse."

In the aftermath of World War II, the United States saw what worked within Nazi Germany, and co-opted it and made it uniquely American. The rest? For all its evil, the single greatest moral failing of Nazism is that It Doesn't Work. It Can Not Work. It Will Never Work. And trying to find the magic formula to get Nazism or Communism to work is not just stupid, but criminally stupid.

There's a followup piece brewing in the back of my mind, but right now I gotta get going to The Day Job.

Author's note: paragraph on medical research added, formatting fixed. Hey, it wouldn't be Wizbang if I didn't completely screw up the page at least once every few months, would it?)

In the world of dog breading it is fact that pure bread dogs are carriers of gene that predispose them to all sorts of illnesses from cancer to epilepsy to mental illness. On the other hand mutts are frequently healthier and smarter and live longer.

I look at it as nature's way of letting you know you shouldn't marry your cousin.

In politics pursuit of ideological purity amounts to a death wish. The Nazis excel in demonstrating he truth of this.

Many have that same problem trying to determine if the National Socialist Party was on the left or the right, and that is because the left controls our schools and they set the narrative, Since Nazis are of the left, the left wants to distance themselves from their own history.

The political spectrum that places communism on the left and fascism on the right is a false spectrum created BY the left.

Here is a clearer more meaningful spectrum that is closer to that of the Founders.

This spectrum has 100% government on the left, and 0% or anarchy on the right, with our constitutional republic as the center - the moderates.

On this spectrum there is no material difference between communism, socialism, despotism, monarchy etc. They all are about the government controlling the people - not protecting the people's rights.

I no longer am willing to allow this lie to be perpetuated. Nazism was typical of leftism of its day, and took many of its ideas from contemporary leftist in the west. The US had eugenics laws in 30 states in Hitler's era.

See this page for a well written and documented look at the real history of the Nazi party and how it was aligned with the American Left of its day.

While there have been a few instances of their "research" in "medicine" having some impact, much of the horrors committed in the name of medical research were anything but science (Dr. Mengele's twin studies, or the studies to find the quickest way to sterilize without anesthesia, or the quickest way to kill someone including injecting various substances by large bore needle into the brain.

What has been well studied, but the analysis poorly utilized by physicians and others, is the study of how medicine and physicians were corrupted by this evil. One of the best is by Robert Jay Lifton - The Nazi Doctors. Anyone who wants to see how medicine and physicians have been co-opted in the past (and is happening again) needs to read this slowly and think carefully.

People feel NAZI German workers party was right wing because of their opposition to communist.

Why were they opposed to communist? Communist wanted power centralized in USSR they wanted it in centralized in Germany.

The German people were in Crisis after the treaty of Versailles. Which would only get worse as the world wide depression hit. They needed scapegoats and the Jews and capitalist fit the bill.

Let see what some the workers aspect of the NAZI party was
Labour Unions
Universal Health Care
Gun Control
Centralized Education
National Youth Physical Fitness program
All with strong central unions and press that supports the Government.

Which part of any of that is about limited Government ?

The problem with NAZI and Fascist becoming bogey men is that when people here the other stuff they were far they think that history had maligned them They do not understand that used honey and then people ended up in honeypot by the most tyrannical government in history

9. All German Citizens must have equal rights and duties.
10. It must be the first duty of every Citizen to carry out intellectual or physical work. Individual activity must not be harmful to the public interest and must be pursued within the framework of the community and for the general good.
We therefore demand:
11. The abolition of all income obtained without labor or effort.
Breaking the Servitude of Interest
12. In view of the tremendous sacrifices in property and blood demanded of the Nation by every war, personal gain from the war must be termed a crime against the Nation. We therefore demand the total confiscation of all war profits.
13. We demand the nationalization of all enterprises (already) converted into corporations (trusts).
14. Wedemandprofit-sharinginlargeenterprises.
15. We demand the large-scale development of old-age pension schemes.
16. We demand the creation and maintenance of a sound middle class; the immediate communalization of the large department stores, which are to be leased at low rates to small tradesmen. We demand the most careful consideration for the owners of small businesses in orders placed by national, state, or community authorities.
17. We demand land reform in accordance with our national needs and a law for expropriation without compensation of land for public purposes. Abolition of ground rent and prevention of all speculation in land.
2
18. We demand ruthless battle against those who harm the common good by their activities. Persons committing base crimes against the People, usurers, profiteers, etc., are to be punished by death without regard of religion or race.
19. We demand the replacement of Roman Law, which serves a materialistic World Order, by German Law.
20. In order to make higher education--and thereby entry into leading positions-- available to every able and industrious German, the State must provide a thorough restructuring of our entire public educational system. The courses of study at all educational institutions are to be adjusted to meet the requirements of practical life. Understanding of the concept of the State must be achieved through the schools (teaching of civics) at the earliest age at which it can be grasped. We demand the education at the public expense of specially gifted children of poor parents, without regard to the latter's position or occupation.
21. The State must raise the level of national health by means of mother-and-child care, the banning of juvenile labor, achievement of physical fitness through legislation for compulsory gymnastics and sports, and maximum support for all organizations providing physical training for young people.
Public Interest before Private Interest.
25. To carry out all the above we demand: the creation of a strong central autority in the Reich. Unquestioned authority by the political central Parliament over the entire Reich and over its organizations in general. The establishment of trade and professional organizations to enforce the Reich basic laws in the individual states.

Nazi's were right wing. The right wing end of socialism. But being to the right of communism does make them right of center ;)
Much like my mild masala chicken. Compared my chili it may be not be hot, but compared to your avg American dinner it's got kick :)

Another area of development where Germany was way ahead of the rest of the world was in the realm of Jet Aircraft. They actually had some working prototypes that were very influential in the development of early SaberJets and Migs. I have often terrified myself with the thought of how much later DDay could have still been effective. I would guess that 6 months later and Hitler would not be reviled as the monster. Instead he would be recognized as the father of the European Union. The EU would have looked strikingly different, however. The winners write the history books.

Yes, Stephen, I do find its utter impracticability Nazism's greatest moral failing. Because with that, even the weakest rationales for their atrocities fall apart. "It's for the greater good." "In the long run, it'll make everything better." "You can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs." "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

Nazism lacks even that slenderest of fig leaves. It offers brief prosperity for some at tremendous expense for others, and then utter, crushing destruction for all. It's a particularly malignant blend of narcissism and nihilism.

So I'm standing by my assertion. Because that single aspect doesn't dwarf all its other monstrosities, it compounds each and every one of them.

John Winger said it the best: "Cut it out! Cut it out! Cut it out! The hell's the matter with you? Stupid! We're all very different people. We're not Watusi. We're not Spartans. We're Americans, with a capital 'A', huh? You know what that means? Do ya? That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world. We are the wretched refuse. We're the underdog. We're mutts! Here's proof: his nose is cold! But there's no animal that's more faithful, that's more loyal, more loveable than the mutt. Who saw "Old Yeller?" Who cried when Old Yeller got shot at the end? "

Well, I object to the very idea that either Nazi-ism or communism have any "moral failings." Human beings have moral failings; ideologies can only be good, evil, or neutral. These two are evil through and through. There are no redeeming features.

I endorse the idea of confronting the skinheads on their web site - and congratulate them for going against their ideology enough to allow debate - as opposed to calling them out on the street.

I recall a Star Trek Voyager episode in which medical knowledge derived from war crimes is used (in the form of a hologram of a doctor named Crell) to save a crew member.

B'Elanna's point is that she spent a lot of years fighting against people like Crell. The Doctor's point is that she will die if she doesn't accept Crell's treatment. Tabor's point is that his entire family was used by Crell as Bajoran guinea pigs (Whew! Them Bajorans is mighty uppity: it's no wonder the Cardies got their scaly butts kicked). The second best part is that no-one can prove any of it. The first best part is that everyone has to make tough decisions and everyone will have to live (or die) with those decisions.

In the end, after much anguish and hand-wringing:

The captain decides that a live Chief of Engineering with a (bigger) chip on her shoulder is more important than a dead one with her morals intact. Janeway orders the procedure to be carried out, but leaves the problem of the holo-Doctor's holo-Exo-biologist's continuing existence up to the holo-Doctor.

The holo-Doctor orders the Crell hologram, and its accompanying database deleted.

The alert viewer is encouraged to recall Josef Mengele and similar Nazi atrocities. I recall the contrast between the decision of the Star Trek writers and what happened in real life.